10 things you need to know about baseball’s offseason

Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington and skipper John Farrell didn’t have much time to admire the hardware they earned for winning the 2013 World Series because baseball's busy offseason activity got underway in a hurry. The Yankees signed Jacoby Ellsbury to a massive contract, A.J. Pierzynski is in and Jarrod Saltalamacchia is out in Boston, and teams continue to add and subtract players and shape the 2014 roster through trades, free-agent signings, and spring training invitations.

Let's take a look at 10 things you need to know about baseball's "hot stove" season.
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Boston Public Library

Why is it called the 'hot stove' season?

The term "hot stove" was already around baseball when this scene in the Red Sox clubhouse was photographed in 1928, as the phrase has origins dating back to the early 1900s when fans gathered around a pot-bellied stove to discuss the issues of the day. For baseball fans excited about the possibilities a new season will bring in the spring, the term refers to the cold winter months where the passionate discussion continues about the summer game.

As many significant transactions take place between now and the end of winter, the time period is also referred to as the "hot stove league." The hot stove season is officially underway because the qualifying offer period has passed and players who are free agents can sign now with other teams.
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David J. Phillip

Not all free agents are created equal

A player with six or more years of major-league service who is not under contract for the following season becomes a free agent, and free agency begins right after the World Series.

Teams get an exclusive window to negotiate with their own free agents and submit “qualifying offers” before they hit the open market. A qualifying offer is a guaranteed contract for the next season. The deadline has passed for teams to submit qualifying offers to impending free agents on their roster.

Team make qualifying offers to players they believe are valuable enough to want back, but also to ensure they get something back (an extra draft pick) if that player decides to sign elsewhere.

The $14.1 million salary for qualifying offers was determined by averaging the top 125 player salaries from the 2013 season – the amount is the same regardless of the free agent. Each player has one week – until 5 p.m. on Nov. 11 – to accept the offer. Under the rules of baseball's new collective bargaining agreement, if the player accepts the offer, the one-year deal is complete. If he rejects it, the team making the offer will receive a compensatory draft pick between the first and second round (assuming the player signs elsewhere).

The Red Sox made qualifying offers to Mike Napoli, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Stephen Drew. Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia was not extended an offer, nor was pitcher Joel Hanrahan. So their cases, they are free to sign with any team and no draft picks come into play.

"In a vacuum, we'd like to have all of [our free agents] back," Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington said. "We'll just have to see how it goes, and we'll continue to talk to all of them and see how the market shapes out."

Last offseason, nine MLB players were extended qualifying offers and none accepted, including David Ortiz, who rejected a qualifying offer from the Red Sox before signing a two-year, $26 million deal with the club.
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Duane Burleson

Key dates on the MLB offseason calendar

There’s no baseball, but plenty of activity involving the game between now and spring training. Here’s a look:

Monday, Nov. 11—Last date for upcoming free agent players to accept qualifying offer from former club; New waiver period begins; Rookies of the year announced

Monday, Nov. 11-Wednesday, Nov. 13—GM/Owners Meetings, Orlando, Fla.

Tuesday, Nov. 12—Managers of the Year announced

Wednesday, Nov. 13—Cy Young Awards announced

Thursday, Nov. 14—BBWAA Most Valuable Player Awards (MLB Network)

Wednesday, Nov. 20—Reserve lists for all major and minor league levels filed, i.e. the deadline for teams to add players to their 40-man roster in order to protect them from being selected in the Rule 5 Draft.

Monday, Dec. 2—Tender deadline: Last day for teams to offer 2014 contracts to unsigned players

An unsigned player under the team's control who has accrued at least three years but less than six years of MLB active service is automatically eligible for salary arbitration. The major league service time required for arbitration this offseason was 2 years, 122 days, according to calculations by the commissioner's office and the players' association.

Once a player agrees to arbitration, the MLB Players Association and MLB Labor Relations Dept. exchange salary figures on behalf of the player and the team. The arbitration panel must choose either the player's number or the team's submitted salary for the upcoming season. After arbitration has been requested, the player and the team can and usually do continue to negotiate a mutually palatable deal.

Teams can avoid arbitration by failing to offer a contract by the Dec. 2 deadline, which would make the player a free agent.

Settlements often close before the case goes to an arbitration hearing. The Red Sox have been able to avoid salary arbitration hearings for more than a decade, often settling with players in the days and hours leading up to the scheduled hearing.

Of the arbitration eligible players on the 2013 Red Sox roster, pitchers Andrew Miller, Franklin Morales, Junichi Tazawa, Burke Badenhop, and infielder Mike Carp were tendered contracts along with 21 other players on the 40-man roster. Reliever Andrew Bailey, who has struggled and battled injuries since coming to Boston, and oft-injured outfielder Ryan Kalish, were not tendered contracts.
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Elsa

Winter Meetings mania

The winter meetings have been a harbinger of hope for Red Sox fans.

While fans fantasize about dream signings and lineups, general manager Ben Cherington and manager John Farrell will huddle up in hotel rooms, agents and media-types will tell-all in the late hours in the lobby, and big deals usually get done, especially for the Red Sox, who have a long history of being active when the baseball world gathers under one roof.

This year, with Jacoby Ellsbury already in pinstripes and Robinson Cano heading to Seattle, mid-level free agents like Stephen Drew will be the focus of teams looking to add players. The Red Sox could still make a move for another outfielder, a power bat, or more depending on what happens with Drew and first baseman Mike Napoli..

Last December in Nashville, the Red Sox landed key ingredients Mike Napoli, Shane Victorino, and Koji Uehara. In 2010, the Sox made the deal that brought in Adrian Gonzalez from San Diego and came away with then-prized free agent Carl Crawford for the price of $142 million as the meetings wrapped up.

On December 9-12, the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort, in Orlando, Fla., will play host to the 112th baseball winter meetings.
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Scott Halleran

Forecast calls for rampant speculation

The offseason is a time of rampant speculation and reports on where free agents may sign, who might get dealt, agent-speak, media leaks and Twitter takes on three-way trade rumors and more. And the hot stove games have already begun.

CBSSports.com's Jon Heyman – known to have close ties with agent Scott Boras – reported early on that Stephen Drew would indeed decline the Red Sox’ $14.1 million qualifying offer and "is aiming much higher than that." Boras would not address the qualifying offer issue for his client on record, but stated that "Drew is in the top five offensively and defensively at his position. You can't find a guy with that package."

But don't believe everything you read, because GMs, team officials, and agents play the media game to try and angle perception and leverage against each other via the daily reports.
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Jessica Rinaldi For The Boston Globe

Good time to get your tickets

Tickets for most regular-season home games usually go on sale in late January. Typically Opening Day, games against the Yankees, Green Monster seats, and right field roof deck tickets are available via random drawings at a later date.

But with a World Series trophy in tow, the Sox are sure to be a hot ticket in town again and the offseason is the best time to secure your seats at Fenway for next summer.

It all starts with the annual Christmas at Fenway event that will take place on Saturday, Dec. 14. Fans will have a chance to register to get tickets at Fenway in person during the all-day event. Everyone will have an opportunity to go online or call to purchase 2014 tickets for select April and May games, or through "Sox Pax," that include tickets to four games.

Tickets for most regular-season home games usually go on sale in late January. Typically Opening Day, games against the Yankees, Green Monster seats, and right field roof deck tickets are available via random drawings at a later date.

If you can't wait until summer to see the Red Sox back in action on the field, you can fly down to Fort Myers, Fla., to take in the spring training games at JetBlue Park. Tickets for the 2014 spring training season should go on sale in early December.
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Bill Brett

Local events on the hot stove calendar

The Hot Stove Cool Music concert and Boston Baseball Writers’ awards dinner are two events where you can expect to see current and former players right here in Boston during the winter.

This will be the 14th edition of the annual Hot Stove Cool Music benefit concert that features Chicago Cubs president Theo Epstein, reporter Peter Gammons, and the Hot-Stove All-Stars featuring Buffalo Tom's Bill Janovitz and Letters To Cleo's Kay Hanley, and a host of other performers.

The benefit concert that takes place on Saturday, Jan. 11 and is preceded by a sports roundtable at Fenway Park moderated by Gammons. All proceeds benefit the Foundation to be Named Later.

The 75th annual Boston Baseball Writers awards dinner will take place on Thursday Jan. 23. Red Sox and MLB luminaries receiving awards are in attendance and fans have the opportunity to interact with them during the event. A portion of the proceeds benefits The Sports Museum.
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Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff

Truck Day

Two little words that mean a whole lot to Red Sox fans everywhere. Truck Day is like Boston's own Ground Hog day. It has become an annual sign that spring is right around the corner in New England. Truck Day is the day when the Red Sox moving van gets loaded with equipment at Fenway Park for the 1,480-mile trek to JetBlue Park, the team's spring training complex in Fort Myers, Fla. The 2014 festivities will take place on Saturday, Feb. 8.

While the truck packing at Fenway has been going on for years, it started to become a local phenomena in 2002, after Dr. Charles Steinberg arrived on the scene. Now fans gather to see a truck being loaded with equipment and the Red sox make its departure a fan event.

The day begins with workers loading a big rig parked outside Fenway Park just after 7 a.m. Bins of bats, balls, medical supplies, training gear, and luggage from the warehouse are loaded on the truck, and boxes are piled high to ensure that no essential is left behind and that the Red Sox have everything they need at their spring training complex.

The 18-wheeler usually leads a procession down Yawkey Way at noon of Fenway ambassadors, Red Sox staff, and Wally the Green Monster in front of a crowd of baseball diehards. A few days later, the truck arrives in Fort Myers and the unpacking begins along with a new season.
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Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff

Happy campers in Florida

Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to arrive first on Saturday, Feb. 15, then the full squad follows on Tuesday, Feb. 18 to begin two weeks of preparation and drills.

Even before the official reporting dates, many pitchers and players get to Fort Myers early and start working out at JetBlue Park in January.

Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to arrive first on Feb. 15, then the full squad follows on Feb. 18.

Fans will begin flocking to Fort Myers in February to see the first full-squad workout on Feb. 20 which begins two weeks of preparation and drills, and more will take vacations to Florida's Gulf Coast to see the Grapefruit League games that begin on Feb. 28.

After the spring training slate of games is complete, and the Mayor's Cup battle between the Red Sox and Twins has been settled, the games become real and Fenway prepares for another home opener.
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